No more excuses for England boss Gareth Southgate, Cristiano Ronaldo's Golden Boot boost and serious issues for Italy - Winners and losers of the Euro 2024 draw

The draw has once again been ridiculously kind to England, who have not only been placed in a relatively weak group, but also given a clear path to the semi-finals. Indeed, it would be a massive surprise if England did not finish above Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.

After a dreadful World Cup, the Danes failed to impress in qualifying, suffering a shock 3-2 loss to Kazakhstan and also scraping a 2-1 win over San Marino. The Scandinavians still managed to top their group, ahead of Slovenia, but England have nothing to fear from Kasper Hjulmund's side - or Serbia, who finished second to Hungary in their pool.

Even more encouragingly for England, if they do progress in first place, they're not scheduled to meet another group winner until the semi-finals (further evidence, as if it were needed, that a 24-team Euros is nonsensical from a structural perspective). So, there really are no more excuses left for Gareth Southgate. This is expected to be his final tournament at the helm and he simply has to win it. Otherwise, he will be forever remembered for failing to end England's trophy drought with an outrageously talented group of players - and in spite of a succession of favourable draws.

It was Italy who upset England in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley just two years ago (because of the Covid-enforced delay) and yet the Azzurri found themselves in Pot 4 for Saturday's draw. Consequently, the title-holders were always likely to find themselves in a difficult group but, truth be told, things couldn't have gone much worse for new coach Luciano Spalletti, who took over following the shock resignation of Roberto Mancini during the summer.

Obviously, being put in Group D alongside France and Netherlands would have been a nightmare but having to face Spain, Croatia and an Albania side that qualified as one of the group winners is not much better. Italy's tournament opener against the latter is going to be absolutely key to their hopes of progressing. Nothing less than a victory over Albania will suffice for Spalletti & Co.

Cristiano Ronaldo had an absolute shocker of a World Cup. It was so bad, in fact, that we wondered whether we would ever again see the international game's all-time leading goalscorer represent Portugal, particularly as Goncalo Ramos had emerged as a better option to lead the line in Qatar.

However, Ronaldo returned for the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign - and with a vengeance, scoring 10 goals in total - only Romelu Lukaku managed more. Now, there's no getting away from the fact that the opposition was terrible, as underlined by the fact that the Seleccao won all of their games, but the good news is that Portugal have been placed in one of the weaker pools in Germany.

There's every chance, then, that Ronaldo could run riot in the group stage as he looks to bring the curtain down on a record-breaking international career by winning a second European Championship - and maybe a Golden Boot to go with it.

It's hard not to feel a little sorry for Netherlands because the last thing they would have wanted was to be drawn in the same group as France. The Dutch were beaten home and away by Les Bleus in qualifying, with a 4-0 loss in Paris proving particularly painful.

Credit to Ronald Koeman's team, they took care of business elsewhere, winning all six of their games against Greece, Republic of Ireland and Gibraltar, and eventually qualified with a game to spare.

However, one can be sure that their backline will not be looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Kylian Mbappe, who gave them the run-around in Amsterdam, and they can't afford to take anything for granted against an Austria side that has improved incredibly since the appointment of Ralf Rangnick as coach.

It's also worth noting that Robert Lewandowski's Poland could also yet end up in this group, which would definitely make it the toughest in the tournament - and do little to help Netherlands emulate national heroes Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, who won the Euros the last time it was staged in Germany.

Are Belgium belatedly going to win a major tournament? Roberto Martinez may have wasted the country's 'Golden Generation' but there are still enough of them knocking about to mount a serious title challenge in Germany next summer. Kevin De Bruyne's injury issues are obviously a concern but, when fit, there is no more creative player on the planet, while Romelu Lukaku has been given a new lease of life since joining Roma during the summer, with the striker racking up 14 goals in qualifying.

We've been here before, of course. As even De Bruyne (controversially) admitted during the 2022 World Cup, Belgium's best chance to lift a trophy has already passed for many of the nation's best players and there's always the fear that when it comes to the crunch, Lukaku & Co. will come up short, mentally. But Domenico Tedesco has revitalised and rejuvenated the team after their harrowing first-round exit in Qatar and they've now received a very handy draw, with neither Romania nor Slovakia likely to seriously challenge the Red Devils for top spot in Group E.

If Belgium can build up some serious momentum, maybe, just maybe, 2024 could finally be their year.

Simply thinking in terms of the atmosphere, every major tournament needs the host nation to at least get out of their group - but there are absolutely no guarantees that Germany will reach the knockout stage, which may sound strange to say given we're talking about one of the most successful nations in international football history.

However, Germany were atrocious at last summer's World Cup, suffering a second successive first-round exit, and their rotten form continued into 2023, resulting in the dismissal of Hansi Flick as head coach. Worryingly, their results haven't improved under Julian Nagelsmann, with Die Mannschaft beaten by both Turkey and Austria during the last international break.

Nagelsmann is obviously a gifted tactician - you don't make it so far at such a young age without knowing the game - but he has an awful lot of work to do between now and June to turn Germany into a side capable of progressing because looking at their opponents - Hungary, Scotland and Switzerland - there are no easy games in there for a team that is playing horribly at the moment. The draw really hasn't done Nagelsmann any favours at all.